Explainathon VI: Return of the Explainathon

How many questions can Kai and Molly answer with next to no prep in a half hour?

That’s the slightly deranged question we try to answer twice a year in our Explainathon, your turn to try and stump our hosts on all things tech, economics and culture. In the seven long months since our last round, you all have asked some really excellent questions, including:

How do you get out of a recession without quantitive easing or a big stimulus package?

What’s a “currency pact”?

If you break up tech companies, how can they compete with China?

What’s the deal with all these background check websites, and how do you get off them? (Here’s some help we found on Reddit.)

Is 401(k) matching making inequality worse?

Plus a bunch more. Remember, Kai and Molly only get one “pass,” which digital producer Tony Wagner helped answer here. Read that when you’re done with the episode if you don’t want to get spoiled.

Listen to all the Explainathons here, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter! Here’s last week’s issue, if you missed it.

Finally, we’re preparing for a new predictions episode! Turn your crystal ball toward 2020 and tell us what you see coming at makemesmart@marketplace.org.